06 April 2012

Fabricated spaces

This image in the SAQA art quilt weekly newsletter caught my eye not so much because of the quilt (by Diane Savona - see more of her work reusing clothing here) but because of the extra factor of its presentation - as an installation, the closed boxes feeding the viewer's imagination - and making me want to see more ... and to find out, why the boxes?

The show, Consuming Boundaries, is at Perkins Center for the Arts, Collingswood, New Jersey through May 12, 2012.

"Weaving a fabric tale of womanhood" says this article - it includes a video of the show, in which Diane Savona explains the boxes - each represents a female artist ... Mimi Smith, for example - she of the steel wool peignoir - with brillo pads coming out of her box. "History is here in the boxes that we're building on." And then there are the hidden things... Brilliant!

Also in the exhibition, Susan Benarcik evolved her installation pieces to be collapsible. Ana B. Hernandez' piece is called "My head in the clouds" and involved family and friends ruffling fabric and attaching fishing line. Maria Anasazi wanted to make a 50-foot long book - attaching pages, and reused fabric, to an industrial grid by weaving and stapling.

Tuesday is Drawing Day - why not join in, wherever you are? Find somewhere that has interesting things - it needn't be a museum, it could be your own home! - and just draw, using whatever media you want. Ask some friends to join you, then have a nice lunch.

The London group has grown to the point where it's getting difficult to find a cafe table large enough, and reluctantly I must say that it is no longer open to new members.

8 August - Docklands, either the architecture or the covered garden or the museum. Meet in the museum cafe for lunch.